Opening the Rusty Door to the Heart Mark 7: 24-37 September 6, 2009 We usually go to Wisconsin for holidays. It’s where I grew up and where I still have a few family members. Lauressa and I love being in Door County because it’s a vacation destination for much of the Midwest—Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Minneapolis. Even the Stanley Cup was there for a 24 hour visit while we were present. Usually family and friends don’t ask us too many questions about Canada..mainly because they know very, very little about their neighbor to the north. Thus, they don’t know what to ask. But that was not the case this August. Almost every conversation sooner or later gat around to them interrogating us about the Canadian healthcare system. They asked: is your healthcare rationed out—can you only go to a doctor so many times a year? Do you have to go to the doctor the Government tells you to go to? Is it true that if you go to emergency you will have to wait 2-4 days before you are seen? And then they reported to us what “Canadians” had been saying in ads: Supposedly the President of the Canadian Medical Association announced “The Canadian health care system is about to implode!” And the infamous report of a woman with a brain tumor who had to wait 6 months before she got an appointment…Of course that report was subsequently corrected. She did not have a brain tumor, she had a small benign cyst that was a cosmetic issue not life-threatening. In the dialogs there were reactions to the stories we told them about our Canadian healthcare experiences: “I don’t believe that! That can’t be true!” Lauressa was wise enough to pursue the topic with one of our most vehement relatives and concluded that one of the most powerful factors in his belief system is that he does not trust the government to do anything effectively or efficiently. We accept that that is his point of view. What was most upsetting to us was the conclusion that many of our friends and family came to in summarizing the conversations. I’ll paraphrase their conclusion in these words. “Well, you certainly have a different viewpoint than I do or we do, but I’m quite happy wit6h the health insurance I have and don’t feel any need to change.” The people we encounter there are all able to buy the health insurance they need, but there seems to be very little concern about the 46-47 million other Americans who have no health insurance, or have very inadequate insurance. The door of their hearts that allows compassion to flow is rusted shut. How do you change a person’s mind? One of the first professional experiences I had was in the year after ordination. My previous denomination asked me to attend a conference put on by the Protestant Council of New York City. One of the learnings that has stuck with me 40 years afterward is that it generally takes a person 3 years to change a deeply held point of view. It also would not be very life-changing to say to my attitude dug-in friends and family “Are you really as dumb as you sound?” The healing passage from the 7th chapter of the gospel of Mark is very relevant to the experience of people stubbornly hanging on to narrow points of view. Why? Because in this story we observe one of the only times when Jesus changed his mind. Jesus put his preaching into active reality by healing people in body, mind and spirit. He was a holistic health-care provider. His narrow point of view was that God’s love and favor had fallen on the people of Israel and they were destined to be the ones to carry out God’s plan. His message and his mission for the Jews exclusively. Jesus healing ministry was mostly for men, but sometimes a few women got into the triage line waiting for care—But they were all good, pure-bred Jews. Even Jesus had a door to his heart that was rusted closed. But here the wisdom, the wit and courage of this woman open the door to his heart, so that his mind changes and in the rest of his ministry Jesus is a shining example of a changed and transformed mind and attitude. The dialog between Jesus and the woman is very explicit. This woman, a Greek Gentile seeks healing for her daughter’s mental problems. He replies, Before your daughter gets my attention, let the children of Israel be fed first for it is not right to take their food and throw it to the dogs.” His words convey that the woman is one of the dogs. But then comes this very remarkable reply that catches Jesus off-guard. She says, “Even the dogs deserve some crumbs from the table.” Jesus is stunned by this clever reply. She has challenged him and given him a rational so that he can do what his heart probably really wants to do, have compassion on the girl and apply the healing power to her condition. From here on Jesus’ ministry is transformed from a small picture to a bigger, wider, deeper reality of compassion and inclusion. The “kingdom of God” Jesus has been trumpeting aloud in sermon and story now is for everyone, regardless. That opening of Jesus’ heart, and attitude made it possible over the last 2 millennia, for you to hear the good news that you too are included in the realm of God. You too are loved and beloved of God even though your credentials, papers, or pedigree may not place you in the top ten of any category. Take a few moments to reflect on how rusty are the hinges of the door to your heart. Do you have an inkling of awareness of what attitudes, points-of-view, or strongly held points of view may be imprisoning you into a concept of the realm of God that simply is too small for your growing human spirit? What are the motivators that help us to allow Creator God to do the transformational work within us? (1) Dissatisfaction and frustration with the way things are right now. When something no longer feels right and good, then it may be the Holy One calling us to open the door to our heart and let the spirit move in us and through us. Be aware of your frustration and unhappiness and invite it to lead you to be aware of new options. (2) Another change-motivator is to realize that life can be better, more free, less limited if we are willing to let God liberating spirit blow through us. God has always created the new in the times of chaos and crisis—which are those times right now. I’ve always believed that “we don’t have to be sick to get better” but often it takes our awareness of our “dis-ease” for us to reach for and to create a new life reality. (3) A 3rd motivator can be a community of like-minded folks who are committed to life being a journey, and adventure, rather than being a place we stop and calcify when we’ve made up our minds about how life is. Keeping an open heart and mind until our last breath will keep us alive in spirit. My American cousins and friends are approaching life today too much from the perspective of fear of the unknown. Perfect love casts out fear. That’s the call of God’s Spirit today. Divine Love will call us out of our fear, will guide us through all the changes of life, and will be with us beyond the fragility of physical life here on earth. I challenge all of us to oil and lubricate the hinges on the doors of our hearts so that the doors can open and close easily. Jesus was able to change his mind and attitude, and if he can we can too. Amen John Henry Weinlick
